UK Study: Eating Less Meat Reduces Greenhouse Emissions

Facts

• A new scientific study published in Nature estimates that if big UK meat-eaters reduce their consumption of red and processed meats, it would be the equivalent of taking 8M cars off the road.¹
• Researchers at Oxford University have found that the meat industry's impact on greenhouse gas emissions can be offset if people switch to a low-meat diet. But the meat industry disputes the findings, arguing the study overstates the impact.¹
• The study found that vegan diets led to 75% fewer greenhouse emissions, water pollution, and land use than diets in which more than 100g of meat per day was consumed. This reduced the destruction of wildlife habitat by 66% and water consumption by 54%.²
• The University's Livestock, Environment, and People project team compared dietary data from over 55K individuals, classifying participants as vegan/vegetarian, pescatarian, or meat eaters. The environmental impact of their diets was then correlated to factors including greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss.³
• The study found a positive correlation between all environmental indicators and the amount of animal-based food consumed, with vegans leading to at least a 30% difference across these variables.⁴
• Globally, the food system emits a third of the world's emissions and causes 80% of river and lake pollution. Humans also use 75% of the world's land, primarily for agriculture.²

Sources: ¹BBC News, ²Guardian, ³Applied Sciences from Technology Networks, and ⁴Nature.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Independent. The ground-breaking report from Oxford clearly shows that a meat-free diet is found to have a much lower environmental impact on land use, water pollution, water use, and biodiversity loss. It also found that high-meat diets produce four times more greenhouse gases than vegan diets. All things considered, we would all be better off for the planet if we reduced our meat consumption.
• Narrative B, as provided by Hackney Gazette. It's oversimplifying things to say that vegetarianism is better for the environment than eating meat because so much of our vegetables are imported. It's not the government's role to impose authoritarian policies on what people can farm or tell consumers what to eat. People already have vegetarian options but are not opting for them. Instead, the government should push for meat production to be made more efficient and to have the scientific community breed genetically engineered cows that emit less methane.

Predictions